The Seattle City Council voted Wednesday to override Mayor Jenny Durkan’s veto of its COVID-19 relief bill while agreeing to scale the plan back by millions as the economic crisis around the pandemic worsens.

Wednesday’s 6-2 vote overcame Durkan’s objections to the plan that will draw down on the city’s reserve funds in what the council hopes is a near-term fix until the city’s new tax on the payrolls of its largest companies can replenish the funds in 2021. The council’s most fiscally conservative member Alex Pedersen and Andrew Lewis were the votes against the override over concerns about a worsening economic forecast for the city and Lewis’s hopes to forge a compromise with the mayor. Continue reading →